


Streets of Blue

by Tabithian



Series: Ordinary Ways [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 17:28:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4844081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabithian/pseuds/Tabithian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We're almost there,” Tim says, puts a note of cheer in his voice he's not really feeling. “Hold on a little longer, okay?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Arkaedia [gave me the idea for this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4780031/comments/39814907) in a comment exchange. Oh, and also clarityhiding for all of the comment exchanges we get into <3! ...I'm not even going to bother linking to a specifc one because there are so many, just [start here and keep going](http://archiveofourown.org/comments/39112541) if you're interested? There's a lot of excited babbling on my part :D? (I'm 100% positive the kitten thing started with Jason and Dick.) Taopard is also to blame for this, [giving me ideas and whatnot](http://archiveofourown.org/comments/39408014)! ;P
> 
>  
> 
> Takes place a fair bit after the events in [Between the Lines](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4780031).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Left at the next street, Red. Then you're clear to take a break.”

“Left at the next street, Red. Then you're clear to take a break.”

Tim hefts the kid on his hip, brushes his lips against her temple when she frets, small arms tightening around his neck. 

Somewhere to his right Steph is helping the older kids, quiet murmur of her voice, lighter answering murmur from the kids. 

Seven of them in total, varying in age from the little girl Tim's carrying who can't be more than four, to the six year-old holding on tight to Steph's hand.

He feels exposed like this. The skin between his shoulders itch, and his nerves are strung tight. 

“Oracle.”

“Left at the next street, Red. Then you're clear to take a break.”

The kids are exhausted, starting to droop, and they're just halfway to the safety of the neighborhood Jackie and Steph and the others seem to think is Tim's - _Red's_ \- territory.

It's asking for trouble, Jackie taking the older kids out to place marker signs on the sides of buildings, lampposts, fence, wherever they think one needs to be. From the gangs, other criminals who might be looking to stake a claim, see their neighborhood as prime real estate.

From the Bats, Tim would say, if things weren't what they are now in that regard. (Not that it stops Bruce from scowling at the markers, whenever he comes across them, warning Tim what a bad idea they are with just a look.)

Tim clenches his teeth. “Batman and the others - “

“Children first,” Barbara says, tone brooking no argument.

Tim sighs, dredges up a tired smile when he realizes the little girl he's carrying is staring at him, eyes wide, worried look on her face. 

“We're almost there,” Tim says, puts a note of cheer in his voice he's not really feeling. “Hold on a little longer, okay?”

The girl nods, and buries her face against his neck.

“Red?”

Tim swallows hard, looks at Steph.

There's too much going on to hope for help right now. The Bats are spread thin as it is, and every available ally is dealing with damage control, or tasked with missions like this one.

“A little bit more and we can take a break,” he says.

Steph nods, slips the kid's hand into Tim's as she moves to the front of their little group.

It's nerve-wracking this, Gotham's underworld erupting in violence over the unexpected power vacuum left by the death of one of its leaders. Barbara calling everyone she had at hand to help, Tim and Steph tasked with leading a group of kids stuck on the wrong side of the line to safety.

Tim keeps a sharp eye on the kids, holding hands in a chain starting with Steph's cloak and ending with the boy nursing major hero worship for Nightwing and Blue Jay holding on to Tim.

Several minutes later they reach the street Oracle mentioned, and take a left.

There's a little store, at the end of the street. Wide glass windows bedside an old wooden door with a sign turned to _closed_. This late at night, it's hidden in shadow cast from the taller buildings surrounding it, high brick walls of the building around it on three sides, tight alleyway behind it. 

Not ideal, perhaps. But better than he'd hoped for. 

They make their way around to the back door leading into the alley, and Tim looks up to see Steph talking seriously to the little girl whose hand is clenched tight on the end of her cloak.

The girl nods, serious expression on her face as she rejoins the rest of them.

Steph beams at Tim and the others, and claps he hands. “All right, breaking and entering here we go!”

Tim snorts, smiles reassuringly at the little girl looking up at him, concerned.

“She's joking,” he says, raises his voice so the others will hear. “Spoiler has a terrible sense of humor.”

Steph snorts, sticks her tongue out at Tim. “So does Red,” she says, and, “Cover your eyes kids, I don't want to be responsible for leading you down the road of ruin.”

Tim waits until all the kids have done so, and smirks at Steph. “Feel free to get that criminal record started.”

“Joke's on you, Red,” Steph says, like Tim doesn't know this. “I did a long time ago.”

Tim rolls his eyes, watches Steph pick the lock. A simple thing, old, nothing that would stop Steph.

“Bingo,” Steph says, quiet satisfaction in her voice as she puts her picks away.

“Let me check the place out first,” Steph calls back loud enough for the kids to hear, already slipping through the door.

Tim sighs, bounces the little girl on his hip when she gets antsy. Tired and stressed and so damn young.

The other kids are watching the shut door, whispering to one another nervously and Tim is so ready for this night to be over he can't put it into words.

He's not.

Barbara usually doesn't call on him like she does the others. Knows he's not like them, determined o go out and making Gotham a better place by going after the worst of it directly. He works, if anything, the way she does.

And yet.

“Coast is clear,” Steph says, holding the door open for the kids.

Tim does a head count, one he's been doing every step of the way, and waits until the last kid is in before he follows, Steph locking up behind him.

The interior of the shop is neat enough, displays and wares organized in some kind of system Tim's not familiar with.

There's a cooler with juice by the register counter, a cardboard display on top of it with travel-sized snacks.

“I'll get B to foot the bill for this,” Oracle says. “He'll understand.”

Tim shares a look with Steph.

“All right,” Steph says, rounding the kids up. “Tim for snacks, everyone.”

Tim crouches to let the little girl he's carrying get in line, smiling encouragingly at her when she glances back at him uncertainly.

He watches Steph deftly handling the kids, one bottle of juice and snack per kid. Nipping any trouble in the bud before it can get out of hand.

“Red?”

Tim looks down at the small voice, another little boy with too-big eyes in a tired face. He has a bottle of juice and packet of crackers carefully held in his hands.

“Yeah, kiddo?”

Tim's expecting a lot of things to come out of the kid's mouth, worries, fears, nightmares in the making, but all he asks is - 

“Do you really know Blue Jay?”

Tim blinks. 

“What?”

The kid shuffles his feet, eyes skipping away from Tim's like he's used up his courage in asking this much. 

“It's just. My mom said he helped her when some bad guys tried to take her purse one night. I wanted.”

Tim feel a pang in his chest when the kid struggles for words, chin wobbling.

“I wanted to thank him, for helping her.”

“Wow,” Steph says, suddenly appearing at Tim's shoulder. Her voice is pitched low so only Tim will hear. “Your boy has a fan.”

Jason's not - 

Tim shoots her a look, but she's looking at the little boy with a soft mile on her face.

“Red's good friends with Blue Jay, kiddo. I'm sure you'll get your chance to thank him in person.”

And then, because she's a horrible human being, smirks up at Tim.

“They're _really_ good friends.”

“Spoiler - “

Steph turns back to the little boy gripping her hand tight.

“Hey, kiddo. You like kittens? Red here has about a dozen of them where we're going.”

The kid's eyes go comically wide as he looks to Tim for confirmation. 

“Really, Red?”

“A little bit more than that, I think,” Tim answers, smile going crooked on him as he leans in close, like he's sharing a secret. “Blue Jay found some kittens in an old warehouse the other day and brought them to the center I help out at.”

Selina will be by in a day or two to pick them up, find suitable homes for them if she doesn't just decide to keep them herself. Until then, there's a little army of kittens running rampant at the center.

“He did?”

The kid's eyes go even bigger. Shining with something Tim recognizes from himself, a few years back at the mention of Blue Jay's name, one more of his good deeds.

Clearly, Steph isn't wrong about Jason having a fan. (Jason's going to _love_ this.)

“Right,” Steph says, giving the kid a playful nudge. “Like Nightwing didn't have anything to do with helping him smuggle the kittens in?”

Tim bites his lip to keep from laughing when the kid _squeaks_ with excitement, hands flailing.

“ _Nightwing?_ ”

“Oh my God," Steph says, irrepressible grin on her face. “There are _two_ of you.”

Steph laughs, and in Tim's ear, Barbara echoes it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow, Bruce is really pushing it tonight.

Bruce is. 

Wow, Bruce is really pushing it tonight.

“Barbara.“

Barbara's back stiffens, voice going cold and sharp.

“Children first, B. Or did I get that one wrong?”

She doesn't even turn around, attention focused on her screens, the comms she's monitoring.

Jason winces, and not from the probing Bruce is doing with the gash on Jason's leg.

No, this has everything to do with the way Bruce's head snaps up, mouth going grim.

“Where - “

“I've got two of my best people on it, thanks for offering.”

Dick slides a look at Jason, carefully nudges Bruce away from him and takes over where he left off. A mercy really, with the look on Bruce's face. 

Everything that's built up in him from dealing with tonight's clusterfuck they're all feeling, but it's hitting Bruce harder than any of them. The idiot hasn't even stopped to rest since this began, and it's more than taken its toll on him.

The best part is, things aren't even over yet. 

They'd gone to the Clock Tower to regroup. Take care of Jason's leg and other minor injuries they were all sporting.

And Bruce.

He's been concerned, irritated, all night because Barbara has seemed distracted. Not giving her full attention to their individual situations, not that she'd been any less effective, but.

But whatever had diverted her attention is still going on, and.

Well.

 _Bruce_.

He gets like this from time to time, more so when one of them is stupid enough to get hurt badly enough to take them out of the running for a while, so to speak.

So, yeah.

Bruce is being an ass and it's driving all of them crazy.

“Hey, guys,” Jason says, tries for cheerful, and ends up somewhere around _for fuck's sake_. “It's been a long night for everyone. How about we not kill one another?”

Dick hisses, squeezes Jason's uninjured calf in warning, but the damage has been done, and oh, look

“Not that I don't like being the center of attention, but really. Tonight's been a group effort. Round of applause for everyone.”

Barbara's turned her chair around to look at him, eyes narrowed, nostrils flared. Bruce is scowling at him, and oh, there's going to be a lot of training when Jason's leg is better, he can see it already. 

“You - “

She freezes, hand going to her earpiece, and then she's _laughing_.

“That doesn't sound good for anyone,” Dick murmurs, and if anyone would know, it's him. 

Barbara's gaze slips to Dick, before landing back on Jason with something like finality.

He absolutely does not back up against Dick, trying to get as far away from Barbara as he can, no. 

That would be silly.

“Barbara?”

Even Bruce is. Spooked probably would be the right word for it, because this is Bruce, but. 

Yeah.

Bruce is worried.

“There's just cleanup to be done,” Barbara says, like everyone in the room isn't aware of that. “And Jason's not going to be taking part in that.”

Jason grimaces, but.

“Thanks for rubbing it in.”

Jason had been more worried with the goon who had a gun on Dick's back, and hadn't realized the goon he'd just dropped was still mobile.

Not an excuse, not at the look on Bruce's face when he came sweeping in like death itself, after Jason had gone down with a knife in his leg.

“Jason.”

Jason sighs, offers Barbara a conciliatory smile.

“Oh, no, worries,” she says. “I have a job for you.”

********

“What the hell?”

Dick is helping Jason hobble down the street, Bruce having taken off to meet with Commissioner Gordon about the cleanup taking place around the city.

Dick's supposed to join up with him after he gets Jason situated, and Jason has been drafted by Oracle to play guard dog until this whole mess is over.

“This is Red's community center.”

It actually has a name, sign hanging over the entrance doors, but no one uses it that Jason's heard. 

“Oracle has her reasons,” Dick says, like an idiot, and helps Jason through the front doors.

Jackie's watching them warily, Taser in hand and in a normal situation Jason would ask what genius thought that was a good idea, but after tonight? 

No questions here if it's kept her and Red's brats safe.

“Where's Red?” Dick asks, acts like they aren't being watched, tiny eyes everywhere.

Jackie's face goes through a series of emotions before settling on quietly angry, seething.

“He went out with Spoiler to do Oracle a favor.”

Jason shares a look with Dick, something like dread settling in the pit of his stomach.

“What kind of favor?”

“Extraction,” Oracle says, voice startling them after being absent from the comms on their way here. “They'll be at the center soon.”

“Well,” Dick says, leading Jason over to the battered little couch in the main room.

There's a pattering noise at the edge of the room where the brats and various kittens have taken cover that they both studiously ignore.

“If that's the case, it won't hurt if hang around here until they do.”

He grins, wide and goofy, but there's steel in it too, when he looks at Jason.

Jackie must see it too because she tucks the Taser away, crosses her arms. “I think between the two of us, we can hold down the fort a little longer.”

Jason's injured, yes, but he can fight if it comes to it, even though the likelihood of that happening are pretty slim. 

Most of the infighting had happened miles from here, and the neighborhoods around Red's tiny little empire are following his example. Building up a firm foundation and building on it, pushing back against Gotham's criminal element slowly but surely.

Dick's smile picks up some teeth, the look in his eyes unyielding. “Humor me.”

********

Jason wakes up to a quiet, “Blue?”

Opens his eyes to see Red looking down at him with a baffled expression.

“Did you know you're covered in kids?” A pause. “And kittens?”

Jason blinks, looks down at himself to see that yes, he is, actually.

Most of the smaller kids are passed out over him, the little red head curled up against his side in a little ball so he won't jostle Jason's leg. More of them spread out of the couch, and there's a furry little punk stretched out over his neck, purring quietly.

There's a thread-worn blanket tossed over all of them, but the kids are providing most of the heat that must have knocked Jason out in combination with the painkillers Dick pushed on him earlier.

“I can honestly say this is a first for me,” Jason says, not daring to move lest he wake the kids and his purring scarf.

“Where's Nightwing?”

Red smiles, and the poor kid looks exhausted, weight of the world on his shoulders.

“Oracle bullied him into leaving. Batman and Commissioner Gordon have everything in hand, and apparently he has a broken rib? I'm not sure, but there was a lot of... _concern_ on Oracle's end of things.”

Christ, Barbara's going to murder that idiot one day.

More awake now, Jason looks around. Sees Jackie and Steph talking over at one of the adult-sized tables in the waiting area, drinking coffee.

There's a little pack of kids Jason doesn't recognize sitting at the kid-sized tables close by, dozing off over their milk and cookies.

Red shrugs at the look Jason gives him.

“Oracle sent us to bring them here, she's already contacted Commissioner Gordon so he can let their families know they're safe. They'll be here in the morning to take them home.”

Jason stares at him.

“It's been a busy night?”

And. 

The thing is, it took some time before Jason really trusted Red. Old habits and instincts being what they were, and this setup Red has going? It's one of those things that seems too good to be true. 

Some kid in a mask who sets up shop in a crappy little neighborhood and decides hey, why not make it a better place? 

Because Gotham, and really, creepy fuckers everywhere. (But mostly Gotham.)

Jason still doesn't know why he trusts the little shit.

The kid's a smartass, and he won't tell them where he gets the money to keep this place running and all of his little programs running. (Donations and community spirit only go so far with the way Red works.)

If Barbara knows, she's not talking.

The kid's a mystery.

A really fucking annoying mystery who lives to give Jason and the others shit every chance he gets, and Oracle seems to love him.

“Blue Jay?”

There's a kid, attached to Red. 

Little dark-haired thing with bright blue eyes and a look on his face that makes Jason nervous for some reason he can't explain.

“Uh, hey,” Jason says, darts a look up at Red who is _smirking_ at him, the bastard.

“Go on,” Red says. “Blue Jay doesn't bite.”

Jason's eyebrows go up at that, perfect comeback on the tip of his tongue but -

“Blue.”

But there are kids here, and Red's laughing at him now, like he did that on purpose because he knows Jason won't be able to follow up on such a perfect straight line.

“Oh my God,” Jason sighs, reluctant smile on his lips.

“Charlie here,” Red says, smirk vanishing, “has something to say to you.”

“What?”

“And,” Red adds, leaning over to prod the kids sleeping all over Jason. “It's time to get these guys upstairs.”

Jason holds very, very still as the kids slowly wake up, grumbling and whining as Red ruthlessly nudges them along, Jackie and Steph dealing with the new batch of tiny monsters.

A little bit later, and it's Jason and Charlie.

Jason sits up, slowly, carefully, because the kitten's still passed out across his throat, tiny claws pressing against his skin. He sets the sleeping kitten beside him on the couch, and looks back at Charlie who's been quiet though all of this.

“Hey,” Jason says again, when the Charlie fidgets, obviously working up to say something.

“I,” the Charlie mumbles, staring at his feet, scowls, and lifts his head to meet Jason's eyes. “You helped my mom.”

It's almost angry, the way Charlie says it, or maybe it sounds that way with the force he put behind it to get the words out. 

Like he wouldn't have been able to any other way. 

“Thank you,” Charlie says, dropping his head and oh, fuck, his voice sounds wobbly, like he's on the verge of crying.

“Hey, it's okay, kiddo,” Jason says. Hesitates for a moment before he pulls Charlie into a hug, rubbing soothing circles on his back. “It's okay. Your mom's fine, right?”

Charlie nods, sniffling. “Because of you,” he says, and wipes his face against Jason's shoulder, snot and all.

Jason snorts, looks up to see Red watching him, this little smile on his face.

“He's a big fan of yours,” Red says, and it's not a smile now so much as a smirk.

“Yeah?” Jason says, pulling back to look at Charlie, who offers him a shy little smile and nod. 

“Cool,” Jason says, ignoring Red's laugh. “I've never had one of those before.”

Charlie's smile gets bigger, eyes brightening, and he looks so damn happy about it Jason can't handle it.

“Really?”

Red sounds like he's having some kind of fit over there.

“Really,” Jason says, and hugs Charlie again, because holy shit, he has a _fan_.

**Author's Note:**

> ...this was just supposed to be a little comment fic.../o\


End file.
